Coda
by morestorii
Summary: "We need to talk about your life choices." - one-shot for now, future KaiShin if continued -


_To my dear parents, grandparents, and_ otona _in general,_

 _your night will be reserved for a different kind of fairytale at the even hour of brothers. Let me tell you the premise:_

 _The blue royal shall be rescued by a white knight._

[Kaitou Kid Doodle]

•••

"We need to talk about your life choices."

He should have been expecting Haibara to come up to him so that questions could be asked and answered. It's been almost a full month since _they_ had fallen. The only dangers were a couple of loose ends who managed to elude the proper authorities. Now was the perfect time to discuss the past, the present, and the future.

With a deadpan look, Edogawa Conan gave a dry chuckle in reply. "Whose? Conan's or _his_?" He winced at her cold stare that could probably sent him to a frozen tundra of death. "Oi, Oi. I'm joking, so stop trying to murder me with your eyes."

She crossed her arms, shaking her head as well. "Your stupidity astounds me, Kudō-kun," she said in a monotone drawl, lowering her voice when she said his name. She yawned and took a step closer, leaning down into his personal space. "My, my. Is that a heist notice from the Kaitou Kid?"

Conan shot her a wilting look that spoke octaves of _please-go-away-demon-you're-disturbing-the-nonexistent-peace_ while he unconsciously moved his hands to cover the heist notice and the one sheet of paper he had used to write down any epiphanies he had collected. His eyes also spoke many levels of _I-need-coffee-stat_ so the attempted glare lost its effect.

"Oh, it is!" she exclaimed, mocking him while maintaining a child-like demeanor. After all, they were both in Kobayashi-sensei's classroom and it was recess so the actual kids were being loud and having fun. "How far have you gotten?"

Conan looked around, hoping none of the kids were listening. It wasn't that he didn't like them because no, that wasn't it. He had to admit that he was getting a little tired of pretending to be a kid with childish deductions. So, noting the lack of listening ears and prying eyes of child-like curiosity, he slid the heist notice closer to the shrunken scientist.

"If it wasn't already obvious, Haibara, it's written in English," he said, ignoring her snippy _I have_ eyes _, Kudō-kun_ in favor of continuing. "Then you have the Japanese word for adults—otona—in the middle of it. Why? Maybe to emphasize something. Following that, he began the next line with _your night._ "

Haibara didn't seem to react in terms of expression. She did have something to comment on. " _Adults_ , huh? _Your night_?"

He nodded. Conan pointed to some chicken scrawl on his paper that might as well have been written in ancient runes or some practically indecipherable language. "Adult's Day is coming up," he told her, reminding her of that holiday. "The second Monday of January is in four days."

" _Hour of brothers_ would be the time, no?" she asked, looking down at the words with her eyes. Conan nodded to convey his approval of her deduction.

The Modern Day Sherlock tapped on the word even with the tip of his blue mechanical pencil. " _Even hour of brothers_ ," he amended. "Even is an important—"

She rolled her eyes. "Just keep going, Edogawa-kun, otherwise I'll be bored and sleep."

The not-child was quick to oblige as he slid his paper towards her and pointed to a chart he had drawn up. "Japanese Wordplay," he said in a humored voice. "Like how 4869 is Sherlock, 23 can be seen as ni and san, nisan, nīsan." He gave a small sigh at the wordplay. "So, 2300 hours happens to be the time of the heist."

She let her mouth drop just a tiny bit (was that _actual_ surprise or—?) before an amused smirk was painted on the reuse canvas of her face. "Ah, that's why it was important to have the _even_ , yes? Otherwise 23:23 would have also been considered."

The detective was pleased that she caught on, pulling the paper back towards himself while he noticed the graphite that had rubbed on to the side of his hand. " _The blue royal shall be rescued by the white knight_ ," exited his lips in perfect English, as have the previously quoted phrases. " _Blue royal_ refers to the jewel whereas _white knight_ happens to be the arrogant bastard."

He noticed the hint of laughter in her eyes and snickered. "With a bit of research, I've figured out the place and the jewel. Since the first part refers to Adult's Day, I spent a while researching any museums celebrating the holiday. There's a museum in Ekoda with a deal off admission on Adult's Day and its attraction for the night happens to be the Cerulean Prince."

Upon the reveal, he pulled out his phone and unlocked it, showing her a picture of a blue jewel. She scanned the vague description on the website before she finally gave him breathing room. He didn't realize it at first but she began to slowly applaud him in the most sardonic way possible with a shit-eating grin.

Everyone quieted their chatter before joining in. Genta and Ayumi made loud exclamations about how they had no clue as to why they were clapping but joined in anyway. Conan sank in his seat, grabbing the heist note and his messy parchment and shoving them into the inner pocket of his suit jacket.

"All right, kids, time for learning!"

Conan was thankful for Kobayashi-sensei's sense to not question what was happening. She had taken one look at Conan's face and decided it was best not to ask. A lot of odd things happened around the sly sleuth and it was best to never bother.

Haibara wasn't done yet. Once everyone else was seated and expectant, she smiled down at Conan. "We have yet to discuss your life choices, Edogawa-kun."

The look he threw her way was reminiscent of an embarrassed naked mole rat, all exposed and not very pleased about it yet also not able to help it. She, in return, gave him a look that lay on the same pedestal as a lion that had trapped the zebra under its great paw or maybe a witch who managed to get the child to climb inside the oven of her gingerbread and candy-plated house.

She gave him a final nod and seated herself down, apologizing in a scarily bright voice about holding up the class. Kobayashi-sensei didn't mind and instead told the class to take out their addition homework from the previous night.

Ah, yes, addition in first grade was grand.

•••

"So, what are these life choices you wanted to talk about?"

"Kudō-kun, I think I've finally done it."

* * *

Yo. I found this sitting in my notes. I'm pretty sure this was a prologue for a fic where Shinichi begins to attend Ekoda? I have no clue. I thought I would publish it so I can just delete it off my phone now. :P

If memory serves, I wrote this on my way to and from a dentist appointment and it's meant to be one of my more humorous stories while creating an interesting plot?

Oh yeah. If you somehow recognize this, it's because I published it for a few hours before deleting it. :P Just wanted to let you know before anyone wants to accuse me of plagiarism.

And most importantly, I do not and never will own _DCMK_.


End file.
